Saturday, I really enjoyed connecting with introverts and discussing strategies for overcoming shyness during a roundtable. Following that, I led a greater discussion about how to network as an introvert, including sharing some ideas about introducing ourselves (like giving a 2-minute story or elevator pitch or whatever you want to call it), how to start a conversation, and how to find events to attend in the first place (asked by a newcomer to Boston).

Sunday, I participated in the smart homes roundtable first thing. We talked about some remote applications for controlling energy consumption and potential future apps we would use (I mentioned kitchen inventory management and pet feeding and monitoring; the fellow next to me broached garden and plant systems.) Then a few of us discussed home repair and related issues. Following that, xxv shared the details of building and installing the world’s smallest museum in Union Square, Somerville, between Subway and The Independent. As well as repurposing some materials (like a fish tank), the museum creators designed and fabricated some aspects of the museum from scratch (like the tiny spotlights). Fascinating!

Since the speaker for the session on freelancing did not show up and I was the one of two people in the room who had freelanced and didn’t mind giving a presentation on it, I shared my experience and encouraged the other fellow to talk about his. Questions from the audience drove what we covered. We came up with a list of places people could potentially find freelancing gigs, including professional organizations, personal networking, LinkedIn, Craig’s List, elance, small companies, start ups, etc.